Ravenwood - 09/20/05 08:30 AM
This op-ed is full of so many lies, half-truths, and distortions that it's hard to take seriously.
Seven thousand dollars may not be a huge sum of money, but it is still a significant chunk of change... The list [of what you could buy] is almost endless, but there is one item in particular that really struck me as surprising when I learned that my gift money could purchase it. It is the Barrett M82A1 sniper rifle, and for the fairly modest amount of seven grand, you could take one home today...Seven thousand dollars. Is that all? I'll take three.
Just looking at the weapon, totally ignorant of its capabilities, I could tell that this was no peashooter. It looks like a modern-day cannon, but with a comfortable pistol grip slapped on the bottom.Looks scary, and has a pistol grip to boot. But what's wrong with a pistol grip? It's not like you're going to hold it like a pistol and "spray fire from the hip" as the gun grabbers claim you can do with so-called "assault weapons".
Thanks to war movies and an uncle who's a card carrying NRA member, I have seen and fired my fair share of weaponry...Such qualifications. "I'm not a real gun enthusiast, but I've seen war movies on TV."
...but never had I even seen a firearm as intimidating as this one.Back to scary looking. (As if staring down the barrel of a .22 in a dark alley isn't intimidating.)
Reading the gun's specs proved to be more than intimidating; it was downright scary.I bet he had to put them in the freezer next to his copy of The Shining.
According to the product's website, the M82A1 "easily fires the largest commercially available cartridge in the world, the .50 caliber." The weapon doesn't just fire .50 caliber cartridges like a few other weapons, but does so with ease. What sets it apart from other .50 caliber rifles is the fact that it is not bolt action, but semiautomatic with a ten round clip.GASP!
Instead of having to manually discharge the empty cartridge then load the next, you can snap off ten shots as fast as you can pull the trigger.[Waiting for laughs and guffaws to die down] If you don't mind ripping your arm off. The .50 BMG hits hard. Really hard.
Ten rounds at a buck from any .50 caliber rifle will leave hunters with very little to mount.Why fire ten rounds? I thought the thing was super accurate and could down airplanes with a single shot, now we're shooting ten rounds at a single deer.
I also learned that the gun has an effective range of over 2,000 yards. Hunters generally shoot at targets 150-200 yards away, so accuracy over ten times that distance is understandable, right? No, it really isn't, especially with a weapon so powerful. Unless the gun was designed for hunters planning on shooting game from over a mile away and then walking 15 minutes to go retrieve it, this weapon could not have been made for hunting.Two thousand yards is approaching world record territory. Shooting that distance would be as easy as say.. running a 4-minute mile, or scoring 100 points in a single basketball game. Both are possible, but really really unlikely. Calling it an "effective" range is tenuous at best. Implying that you can hit a target 2,000 yards away, from a semi-auto, spewing rounds as fast as you can pull the trigger is an outright lie. Might as well try running that 4-minute mile in a business suit, while talking on your cell phone.
Sure enough, the M82A1 was not created for civilian gamesmen. It was designed for use in the military and in law enforcement, both of which herald the M107 as the premier big bore rifle (the M82A1 is the civilian version).And just why would law enforcement need such a rifle? What's more, why would anyone approve of law enforcement owning a gun that is supposedly too dangerous for normal people to possess; one that supposedly only has military applications?
What makes the gun so loved by armies across the globe? Not only does it boast incredible range and extremely destructive ammunition (standard rounds can go through brick walls); it has minimal recoil and is extremely easy to fire. With the recoil of a 12-gauge shotgun if fired from the shoulder and considerably less when fired from the stock bipod, it is very easy for a soldier with little practice or training to become very proficient with the weapon.Energy does still equal mass times acceleration, right?
Due to their gratuitous power, these guns are used to attack stationary or landing aircraft, tanks, armored personnel carriers and concrete bunkers. They are very rarely used on single enemy combatants, just as I rarely swat flies with a baseball bat. Like a rocket launcher with a tighter shot pattern, these rifles destroy enemy aircraft and tanks cleaner, faster and from farther away.First of all, you don't need a .50 caliber to destroy a stationary aircraft. Airplanes are light weight and not heavily armored. Tanks are a different story. Just about all guns will pierce armor depending on the thickness of the armor. Barretts *may* pierce old obsolete tanks or thin skinned personnel carriers, but they are hardly anti-tank guns.
I think I have established the fact that the Barrett M82A1 is any target's worst nightmare, but now I think we all need to look at why I can get one of these easier than I could get a handgun.That's not a fact, it's opinion. And I'd hardly call a $7,000 gun with limited availability easier to get than a $50 handgun. Granted, the author is from Michigan where (to my knowledge) handgun buyers do need to get a license and pass a test prior to purchase.
The amount of havoc that can be caused by this weapon if it found its way into the wrong hands is off the charts. Pedestrians would have to worry the least; the rounds can go through motor vehicles, walls or aircraft shells from over a mile away. Whether it be terrorism or just criminal use, no one would be safe. Another feature of the weapon that should get the thing banned is its ease of use. With minimal training, anyone could become extremely accurate with this weapon, endangering everyone within a mile radius.Lie.
Despite my firm agreement with the Second Amendment, there are specific cases where the right to bear certain arms is significantly more dangerous than what may happen if one could not. This is one of those cases. The Barrett M82A1 .50 caliber rifle, as well as all other semiautomatic .50 caliber rifles, has no place in society. They are not effective hunting weapons, and anyone could defend themselves more than effectively with a less powerful gun. This weapon is extremely dangerous and not worth the risk.He's another one of those "I support the Second Amendment, but..." people, who foolishly believes the Second Amendment is all about hunting. Personally, whether it be cigarettes, booze, or guns I'm sick of people justifying their bans by saying they don't think there's a need. Exercising your rights should not be subjected to needs testing, nor should you stand idly by while people try to infringe upon them because of their lack of understanding.
Category: Cold Dead Hands
Comments (16) top link me
Excellent fisking.
And justifiably so.
I've never seen anyone try to fire a .50 from the shoulder. Which I assume he means in a standing position. I know a couple of ex-military men who have assured me that proficiency is not hard with them at short ranges, but when you start getting into the long shots, it gets pretty hard.
This person is a total and utter git.
Posted by: Nylarthotep at September 20, 2005 7:43 AMForce is mass x acceleration. Energy = force x distance. But, the point still stands... shooting a 12 gauge prone is still going to kick yer shoulder a fair bit...
/geek
Posted by: Nate at September 20, 2005 10:03 AM"Like a rocket launcher with a tighter shot pattern, these rifles destroy enemy aircraft and tanks cleaner, faster and from farther away."
WTF? Over.
Posted by: Nate at September 20, 2005 10:05 AM'He's another one of those "I support the Second Amendment, but..." people, who foolishly believes the Second Amendment is all about hunting.' And yet he knows nothing at all about hunting. "Ten rounds at a buck" proves that. The only way you're going to hit a buck with 10 rounds is if the first one knocks it down and then you fire 9 rounds into the body. That would be a strange way to detach the head for mounting... (Even with a 30-30, ten rounds wouldn't leave any meat.)
Posted by: markm at September 20, 2005 10:23 AM"Thanks to war movies and an uncle who's a card carrying NRA member, I have seen and fired my fair share of weaponry..."
I'd like to know war movies he saw that makes him an expert on weaponry; over half the movies I've seen don't show firearms correctly.
Posted by: Robert Garrard at September 20, 2005 11:05 AMGo read the forum attached to the original article. They really tear into the author. Hmm, I wonder how many of his critics linked there from here? :-)
Posted by: Drew at September 20, 2005 4:03 PMDamn! I was going to fisk that one tonight, but you beat me to it!
Good job!
But I'm disappointed that he didn't invoke Ravenwood's Law.
Posted by: Kevin Baker at September 20, 2005 7:35 PMMore dumb gun control laws that dont work when will these politicians ever use their brains rather then their mouths?
Posted by: screaming eagle at September 20, 2005 10:05 PMConsider the source: The Eastern Echo, student paper of Eastern Michigan University, located in drug-war torn... er, fashionable Ypsitucky... er, Ypsilanti.
North of US-12/Michigan Ave, it's a university town. To the south up to I-94, it had (and may still) some of the worst crack houses and associated crime in the state. I'm told that gunfire used to be heard regularly, and you could not drive in some areas if you were white as you'd be taken for a cop. (This may be exaggerated; I lived only a few miles away for many years but I did not test it. It seemed ill-advised.)
The author of the editorial may be in a left-leaning program like education (Eastern is a teacher's college). The most recent and emotionally significant experience he may have had with guns is hearing the gang fights or possibly being robbed by someone trying to buy drugs (drugs that would go for pocket change if we didn't have the WoD, but I digress). He's probably paranoid about someone going on a meth bender and picking off anyone he can see through the windows in the south-facing windows of the tower dorms... like a meth addict would have a $7000 gun for more than it took to sell it.
If someone took him out to the range and showed him how challenging e.g. silhouette shooting could be, he might change his tune on this one. But I expect that he's just going to have to experience the myriad dope-slaps from his more enlightened peers.
Personally, I only shoot my .50 cal rifle from the hip, like a real tough guy.
That is, only when I'm not busy hosing-down the landscape and robbing convenience stores with my Browning M2 machine guns. You should see the look on the clerks' faces when I strut in carrying a couple of those babies.
Posted by: roger at September 21, 2005 7:48 AMThis is the first time I've read anything at this site. Excellent fisking, I will definitely have to return again.
I can confirm your statements on the requirements to purchase a handgun here in Michigan. You do have to get a purchase permit, and part of that process is to take a "test". The process is akin to getting your driver's license renewed, a fact that is probably quite deliberate, except there is a background check.
What really amuses me about this article is the standard-issue, "I don't know anything about this subject, but see how rationally I can talk about it," kind of approach that all too frequently masquerades as intelligent thought from those on the left. For this Michigan resident, this gun is definitely on my "when I win the lottery" purchase list.
Posted by: Jon at September 21, 2005 9:24 AMOutstanding... nothing I can add that hasn't already been said, except maybe "bravo"!
Sure makes you shake your head, doesn't it?
Posted by: Mugwug at September 21, 2005 9:48 AMPlease feel to write the author at ass-ina-sling... I mean [email protected].
I really try to maintain my composure when dealing with these GFW's but geezz... they make it so hard. Half truths and lies abound. Just makes me want to reach out and bitchslap them. Of course they'd just point and say ' see what guns do?'...
Posted by: David at September 21, 2005 11:21 AM"Force is mass x acceleration. Energy = force x distance."
True, but Energy = (mass x velocity^2)/2 is more useful for projectiles.
Momentum = mass x velocity. Momentum is the relevant property as relates to recoil. The momentum of the rifle and of the bullet are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
Posted by: Bob Reynolds at September 21, 2005 1:26 PMMy favorite response to people who pull out the "need test" is: OK, then tell me why you "need" children. (this is double effective as I am childless by choice)
To make a point, there is a lot that is worthwhile as well as crappy that no one needs.
Posted by: debbie at September 21, 2005 5:16 PMqoute:
Sure enough, the M82A1 was not created for civilian gamesmen. It was designed for use in the military and in law enforcement, both of which herald the M107 as the premier big bore rifle (the M82A1 is the civilian version).
Actually, IIRC, barrett built these for the civ market. The .mil community didn't pick these up til the kerfuffle in 91, and it was released back in the mid 80's, matter of fact, robocop had the damned thing before the Marine Corps......
Posted by: A.J. at September 30, 2005 2:53 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
